Harrison
Meaning
"son of Harry," which made it "son of Henry" at one remove; a surname carried by two US presidents, it joined the first-name ranks in the 1980s and kept the vintage warmth of Harry inside a suit-and-tie surname
Goes by Harry
The story
Harrison means simply son of Harry, an English surname from the centuries when Harry was the everyday form of Henry, and it entered American life early enough to reach the White House twice: William Henry Harrison and his grandson Benjamin were both presidents. As a first name it kept a steady if modest place in the records from the 1890s onward, running quietest in the 1960s and 1970s. Then Hollywood intervened, or seems to have: Harrison Ford became the biggest movie star of his era flying the Millennium Falcon and carrying Indiana Jones's whip, and from the 1980s the name began climbing again; the connection is hard to prove and harder to ignore. The climb has continued for four decades, and Harrison now sits at the strongest point in its recorded history, a surname with a presidential past and a blockbuster present.
Harrison's name family
One shared root links 10 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Germanic Heimirich "home ruler", smoothed through French Henri; Harry was its everyday medieval English voice
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Harrison peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,506 people · the #6,251 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 142,857 · median age 28
Among people named Harrison living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 29 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Harrison
Most people given the name Harrison in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Harrison deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Harrison truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Harrison fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Harrison · Nicknames for Harrison · Middle names for Harrison
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